12.28.12 12.28.12 >> from pacifica, this is democracy now! >> legitimate rape, the female body has ways to shut that whole thing down. >> what i want to know is [inaudible] >> what is at stake is not some material thing called the planet or environment. what is at stake is tearing down our children's futures. >> today, we look back at 2012.

all that and more coming up. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. today, we look back at 2012, and the most expensive election in u.s. history. president obama defeated mitt romney forcing the republicans to reconsider their policies among others returning women and immigrants. while the major party presidential candidate did not take on fossil fuel, climate change in any of their debates, it was a year of extreme weather from melting of the arctic to superstorm sandy to the massive typhoon in the philippines. 2012 will also be remembered for a series of mass shootings from aurora, arata, to the sikh temple, to be shooting in

newtown, conn.. the case around trayvon martin sparked national protest after officials refused to arrest george zimmerman. president obama continues his secret drone wars. we spend the hour looking back at the moment and movements that shaped 2012. >> democratic congresswoman gabrielle giffords has announced she will step down this week. she was shot in the head last year in a shooting spree that left six people dead in tucson. >> thank you for your prayers and for giving me the time to recover. i have more work to do on my recovery, so i will do what is best for arizona. i will step down this week. >> iraqis are voicing outrage over the sentencing of the last marines charged in the 2005

massacre of 25 civilians. on tuesday, frank woodrich received no jail time. >> i was expecting the american courts would sentence the person to life in prison. he should appear and confessed to the world that he committed these crimes so that america could show itself as democratic and fair. >> in a dramatic scene yesterday on capitol hill, several democrats walked out of congressional hearings on the contraception rule. carol maloney of new york criticized the panel at the hearing, which was exclusively male. >> what i want to know is, where are the women? when i look at this panel, i do not see one single woman represereing the tens of millions of women across the country who want and need insurance coverage for basic preventive health care services,

including family planning. where are the women? >> we are joined by sandra flu, the female would this not allowed to testify at the all male hearing on capitol hill yesterday. >> i was there to talk about the women whose voices have been affected by this policy, who have been affected financially, emotionally, and medically. what i wanted the members of congress and the public to hear is what a difference this policy could make to their lives. i wanted to talk about how birth control is not [no audio] it is not easy and it is incredibly expensive. >> what does this say about the college co-ed susan fluke, who goes before a congressional committee and says essentially, she must be paid to have sex. what does that make her? it makes her a slut, right?

a prostitute. she wants to be paid to have sex. she is having so much sex, she cannot afford the contraception that she wants you and me and the taxpayers to pay for. >> i strongly believe the government has to legislate for reality, not ideology. if we do not provide contraception coverage for health care, that will not stop anyone from having sex, whether sugar should one be. we have to take care of women's health care. >> wikileaks has begun publishing what it says are 5.5 million e-mails obtained from the servers of stratfor, and intelligence firm. >> today, wikileaks begins its release of 5000 e-mails documenting the private lives and private lies of private

spies. >> a u.s. army member is in custody after killing 16 civilians, nine of them children. >> the united states in military official public to characterize the massacre as exceptional, sort of one bad apple, but i think it actually encapsulates what the united states presence in afghanistan has been all about. >> police in sanford, florida have released a series of 911 tapes the night that trayvon martin was shot to death by a self-appointed neighborhood watch capt.. >> this guy looks like he is up to no good or is on drugs or something. it is raining in he is just walking around. >> is the black, white, or hispanic? did you see what he was wearing? >> he looks black. he was wearing a gray hoodie, jeans, sweat pants, white tennis

shoes. >> are you following him? >> yes. >> ok, we do not need you to do that. >> this is modern-day lynching. we will not accept what langston hughes called strange fruit hanging from the tree, which of course, were african-americans who were hung from trees in that day publicly for great outcry. now we are making sure that this doesn't happen in 2012. >> our son is your son. stand up for justice and stand up for what is right. this is not about a black and white thing. it is about a right and wrong thing. >> if i had a son, he would look like trayvon. i think they are right to expect that all of us as americans are going to take this

with the seriousness that it deserves and we are going to get to the bottom of exactly what happened. >> a new exposew a has revealed new details about how the national security agency is quietly building the largest spy center in the country in plouffe dale, utah, as part of a secret nsa surveillance program. >> you have this massive agency collecting information by tapping into undersea cables, picking up microwave links, tapping cell phones, and data links, computer, and e-mail, and so forth, and it has to store it some place, which is why they build + tail. with the death of a man who was sunday white plains police officer in his home. >> my father accidentally

triggered his life alert pendant that morning. the police responded to his own supposedly to do a medical check to see if he was ok. he told them he was fine, yet, they insisted he opened the door. when my father said he knows his rights and did not need to open the door, they began to bang on the door for over one hour come ultimately breaking the door down, and shooting and killing him. >> this is your help center. mr. chamberlain, the need help? >> yes, this is an emergency. i have the white plains police department at my door. i did not call them and i am not sick. >> video shows the moment before they knock down the door and shot him with a taser. >> you can see the electricity shooting kenneth chamberlain. the video comes out at this

point. within minutes, kenneth chamberlain was shot dead by the police. on san tucci has won her first bid for parliament after spending much of the past 20 years under house arrest and detention. >> we hope this is the beginning of a new era where there will be more emphasis on the role of the people in the everyday politics of our country. >> a gunman opened fire at a small christian college in oakland, calif. monday killing seven people and wounding three. it was the deadliest school shooting since the beginning tech massacre in 2007. the killings occurred at a college affiliated with a a korean-american church. >> he shot one guy in the chest, another person, and then he started farm like crazy. >> president obama has accused republicans of favoring the rich with a budget plan that

favors the rich. >> is a trojan horse disguised as deficit reduction plans. it is really an attempt to impose a radical vision on our country. it is thinly veiled social darwinism. >> hundreds of people gathered in athens, greece for the funeral of the 77-year old retired pharmacist who shot and killed himself near the greek parliament building last week after writing a note that blamed his suicide on the economic crisis. his daughter spoke at his funeral and said his act had been deeply political. >> you found it unacceptable that they were killing our freedoms and democracy and dignity. you found it unacceptable as they heartened -- tightened the hard news of the apartheid around us. the acceptable act of surrender our independence and keys to the country. it was unacceptable to you that greece did not acknowledge its children, and the children did

not recognize its own country. you found the bestiality of capitalism unacceptable, that it infiltrated our lives, and know and try to stop it, and then you made your decision, to become the fear, the death, the memory, the slope of our ruin the lives. >> 46 days after killing the unarmed african-american teenager trayvon martin, george zimmerman had been detained and charged with second-degree murder in florida. >> let me emphasize we do not prosecute by public pressure or petition. we prosecute based on the facts of any given case as well as the laws of the state of florida. >> in a national broadcast exclusive we are joined by and as a whistleblower william bennett. >> after 9/11, all of the raps came off for nsa, and between the white house, nsa, cia, decided to eliminate the protections of u.s. citizens and

collect domestically. they started collecting from commercial -- the one commercial company that i know of that participated, provided over -- on average, 320 million records of communication of u.s. citizen to another citizen into the country. >> we are going to interrupt the broadcast because right now we have just gotten a call from someone in prison in pennsylvania. he is speaking to us for the first time, no lover on death row. >> you probably heard me referred to life as slow death row. it sounds a little dramatic, but it is really more truth to it than hyperbole. that is because of, in terms of

lifers, it has the largest percentage in pennsylvania. there is no radiation. all lifers are lifers. as you see, as i have seen, a child going to a meal, what i call the million man wheelchair march, it makes an impact on you. you look up in the morning and there are 30 or 40 guys going to the handicapped line, and they are in wheelchairs. although some are young, most are quite old. >> president obama has publicly declared his support for same- sex marriage, becoming the first u.s. president to do so. >> at a certain point i have concluded for me, personally, it is important for me to go ahead and affirm that i think same-sex couples should be able to get married. >> joining us now is the

acclaimed play light and gay rights activist tony kushner. >> it has been astonishing to watch over the years the slow but steady progress of marriage rights, in general, the enfranchisement of the lgbt community. the pace was faster than i anticipated. >> a federal judge struck down part of a controversial law signed by president obama that gave the government power to indefinitely detained anyone it considers a terrorism suspect anywhere in the world without charge or trial, including u.s. citizens. chris hedges is with us, senior fellow at "the nation closed would institute. he is suing the demonstration over the national defense authorization act. >> in essence, it validates -- invalidates section 1021 that permits the government to use the military to hold american

citizens, strip them of due process, and detain them in military facilities, including our offshore penal colonies, until the end of hostility. it is monumental because she invalidated ala. quite a courageous decision. clearly a correct one. >> iraq veterans against the war held a ceremony where nearly 50 veterans discarded their war medals by hurling them in the direction of the nato summit. >> i was a surgeon in the army, i did two tours in iraq. no amount of metals are ribbons can cover the amount of human suffering caused by these wars. we do not want this garbage. we want our human-rights. >> my name is scott olsen. i have with me today my global war on terror metal, operation iraqi freedom medal, national

defence metal. these metals, once upon a time, made me feel good about what i'm doing. they made me feel like i would do the right thing, but i came back to reality. i do not want these any more. >> we are a global afghan peace movement speaking against the occupation and war in afghanistan. we are here to protest nato and call on all representatives to end this inhumane, a legal, barbaric war against our own country and people. >> "the new york times" resident obama has a personal kill list. according to the paper, obama signs off on every targeted killing in yemen and somalia and the more complex and risky to strikes in pakistan. >> i want people to understand that drones have not caused a huge number of civilian casualties. for the most part, they have been very precision strikes

against al qaeda and their affiliates. we are very careful, in terms of how it has been applied. >> it was ramadan, we were about to break our fast with the children. we took a bite, said our prayers. the children had just started eating when the missile struck. my two sons and i were outside, but everyone inside was killed. three people were killed. my brother, my brother's son, and my brother in law. >> how many what people are you willing to sacrifice? why are you like to the american people and not saying how many innocents have been killed? >> in pakistan, he was killed because he wanted to document the drone strike. i speak out on behalf of the a

16-year-old killed in yemen, born in denver. >> in other news from syria, reports have emerged that the young syrian filmmaker was killed on monday in the city of hams. he appeared on the show in december. at the time be as that we only use his first bid for security reasons. >> what i saw in the last week, it is starting to turn into almost a civil war. they are enforcing the locals to form an armed resistance to the regime forces. >> for more we go to charles glass, award winning broadcaster. he returned from syria last month. >> these massacres are a clear indication of how urgent it is to find -- to force both sides

in the conflict, the opposition and regime, to negotiate a settlement, which would ultimately mean a change in regime, but certainly a transition period in an absence of that, you have the russian army government, the saudis, the guitarist, the that states, turkey, farming the opposition, which will only inflame the civil war. more massacres will then take place. >> we continue with our look back at 2012. to get a copy of today's show, go to our website, democracynow.org.

>> "at last" by the legendary blues singer it added james. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. we look back at 2012. >> wisconsin governor scott walker has survived a recall election a year after launching

a controversial campaign against the state's public workers. >> today we tell wisconsin and our country and people all across the globe, voters really want leaders to stand up and make the tough decisions. >> we waited for governor walker to speak and we on pulled a banner that said that washington has a koch problem. >> new figures show this year's military suicide rate is on pace to reach a record high. the pentagon says there have been at least 154 suicides among active-duty troops through last thursday. a rate of nearly one each day. >> every day in this country, 18 veterans are committing suicide. 17% of the individuals in combat in afghanistan -- my brothers

and sisters -- are on psychotropic medication. >> president obama announces the ministers and most of deporting hundreds of thousands of undocumented you whose parents brought them to the nine states. >> these were young people who studied in our schools, play in our neighborhoods, they are friends with our kids. they pledge allegiance to our flag. they are americans in their heart, in their minds, in every single way but one, on paper. now let's be clear, this is not amnesty, this is not immunity. this is not a path to citizenship. it is not a permanent fix. this is a temporary stopgap measure. >> biking as far redefined immigrants might movement in this country. we are taking a lead now. now we are unstoppable. i think our responsibilities to

our community, to our parents, to the adults, is to continue that work, to look for permanent solutions, but also to empower the adult population in this country. i do not callyself an illegal immigrant. i go into the immigrant communities and they call me legal and i ask, do you understand what you're internalizing in that? we are pushing for a sense of american >> today is one of those days where you understand what the early parts of the global warming ever will look like. we have the first reader for the first time in history, we managed to get our fourth tropical storm of the year before july. debbie is dropping record amounts of rain across florida. meanwhile, in colorado, they have evacuated parts of the air force academy. they have also evacuate -- this

is truly ironic -- the headquarters for the national oceanic and atmospheric association. that is where the most aboard climate science is going on. these are the most destructive fires in colorado history and they come after the warmest weather ever recorded. you could do the same exercise all over the planet. this is what it looks like as the planet begins -- and i underline begins -- to warm pita mohamed mursi had been declared the winner in each presidential race. >> we will respect agreements and international law as well as egyptian commitments and treaties with the rest of the world. >> to talk about the significance of election, we are joined by sharif of del produce. >> the first democratically elected in egypt's history.

his win marks a victory over the lingering remnants of mubarak's regime. >> chief justice john roberts prove to be the surprise deciding vote. joining with the court's liberal members. >> the highest court in the land has not spoken. we will continue to implement this law and we will work together to improve on where we can. >> me state the positive first. this really is a huge victory for our side. in spite of all of my concerns with this law, it did not go far enough, it does not cover all americans, it is not true universal health care. nonetheless, the right wing has been handed a serious defeat today. >> we begin today's show in mexico where the old ruling party, the pre is set to return

to power. the candidate, pena nieto, has won the election, but his chief rival has not conceded. >> pena nieto is clearly the candidate who will give continuity to -- and continuation with calderon's drug war strategies. >> it is an absurd war. drugs are not and national security issue. they are a public health issue. turning a public health issue into a national security issue has created an absurd war that has killed many people. 60,000 dead. we do not even know how many have disappeared. >> and number of major banks are facing at least two criminal

probes over interest-rate fixing scandal that has already led to fines against barclays. >> they're retreating against this information in essentially what was the biggest kind of insider trading that you could imagine. >> thousand gathered in aurora, colorado on sunday to remember the victims shot in the movie theater. >> i think it was tremendously significant that immediately after this most recent massacre, the president's chief spokesperson, when asked what the president intended to do, the first words out of his mouth was, we intend to protect second amendment rights. >> on sunday morning, a gun man entered a sikh temple in wisconsin and open fire. >> we never think these things would happen to our temple because people go there to pray, for everybody, but

unfortunately, this is really said. >> the gun man was weighed michael page, a u.s. army veteran who has links to white supremacist groups. >> what has happened is an explosive growth in groups on the radical right. we have not seen this kind of growth. groups that we used to call militias back in the 1990's have grown at an absolutely unbelievable pace, from 149 in 2008, to 1274 last year. >> we begin with new scrutiny that mitt romney is facing or his record at bain capital. the latest controversy concerns how he helped found the company with investments from central american elites link to death squads in el salvador. >> he failed to raise capital from traditional sources in the

u.s., so he flew to miami and went directly to a bank and met with a number of these families who were involved with death squads, and accepted, at the time, what was a huge amount of money. >> today is a good day for america and there are better days ahead. join me in welcoming the next president of the united states, paul ryan. every now and then i am not to make a mistake. [laughter] i did not make a mistake with this guy. but i can tell you, he will be the next vice-president of the united states. >> i have been asked by governor romney to serve the country that i love. >> ryan's plan that on balance the budget for another 20 years. his plan is about massive tax cuts for wealthy people, multinational corporations, and the beginning of a redistribution of federal spending, from funding programs

like medicare, medicaid, social security, into wall street and insurance companies. he wants to make abortion illegal in all cases. he has signed on to the personhood bill, which we're concerned will have implications for in vitro fertilization, different kinds of birth control. it is an extreme measure that has been defeated. in mississippi, one of the proposed conservative state in the country -- and this is something that congressman ryan thinks is a good policy for the country. >> a shooting near texas a&m university on monday have left three people dead, including the gun man and wounding four others, one seriously. the shooter was a 35-year-ol the catholic constable who had come to his home to serve him with an eviction notice. >> today we have received from the united kingdom a clear and

written threat that they could storm our embassy in london. >> the government of ecuador is reporting on the situation today. >> we want to make it clear we are not a british colony and the times of colonialism are over. >> i ask president obama to do the right thing. the united states must renounce its witch hunt against wikileaks. >> a prominent human rights activist in bahrain has been sentenced to three years in prison for taking part in protests against the u.s.-backed regime. the president of the human center for -- bahrain center for human rights has been detained after making comments and making appearances. >> we are obstinate about the nine states. are upset about the united states trying to hide their

crimes. >> we turn to breaking news in russia where three members of a feminist, a group have been found guilty of who will listen for staging a peaceful protest against vladimir putin in son of an orthodox church. -- inside of an orthodox church. >> when i put on my mask, i feel like i can do everything. of course, i and the same person, but this is another part of me, which has more courage, which has a strong pillar of what she is doing is right. she has enough power to change something. >> republicans are mounting increasing pressure on desert covers member taught taken to end his speed to unseat glenn

mccaskill. >> legitimate rape, the female body has ways to shut that whole thing down. let's assume that did that work or something. i think there should be some punishment, but the punishment should be on the rapist, not attacking the child. >> rape is rape. the idea that we should be parsing and qualifying and slicing what types of rape we are talking about does not make sense to the american people, and certainly does not make sense to me. >> your thoughts on the run-ryan ticket? >> no comment. >> we are trying to follow karl rove and sheldon adelson as they are going down here. mr. adelson, how much money are you going to spend on the election?

>> i did not touch her. she ran back into me. she just grabbed our camera. >> i know you were against the war in iraq, that is ok -- but you thought the war in afghanistan was -- was ok -- you thought that was worth doing. we did not check with the russians to see how they did there for 10 years. [laughter] but we did it. it was -- you know -- it was something -- to be thought about. >> when david koch sat down last night as a member of the u.s. delegation, i went over to ask a question. >> do you think unchecked concentration of wealth will undermine democracy? >> i could not quite hear you.

i am deaf in one ear. >> we are not doing any interviews. >> president obama promised to begin to slow the rise of the oceans. [laughter] [applause] and to heal the planet. [laughter] my promise is to help you and your family. >> one of the first acts of civil disobedience at the democratic national convention took place on tuesday just outside the time warner cable center. >> we are here to ask president obama, who we need a president that recognizes our dignity and

rights to organize. for that, we are risking arrest. >> i have been living here for 18 years. i pay taxes. i pay more taxes at citibank. i am here because we are against the separation of families, against all of the discrimination that this society is making against our community. >> this is democracy now!'s look back at 2012. to get a copy of the show, go to our website, democracynow.org. we will be back in a minute.

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boys. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. we look back at 2012. >> return to our guest of the discussion and debate about president obama's speech and record. >> of course, it may be true, as mr. ford has indicated, but the truth is obama is as progressive a figure who has the chance of being elected in america. friedrich engels will not be the secretary of labor and mark will not be the secretary of the treasury. >> he is the more effective evil because he is able, being a democrat, to accomplish more of that right-wing agenda, and republican ever could. george bush tried to privatize social security. he cut his worst domestic defeat of his term in so doing, and the

republican were reeling from that, even in 2009. it took barack obama to introduce a model for austerity. >> 29,000 public school teachers and support staff have gone on strike after union leaders failed to reach an agreement with the nation's third largest school district over education reforms sought by chicago mayor rahm emanuel. >> we will walk the picket lines, we will talk to parents, clergy, we will demand a fair contract today. we demand a fair contract now. >> the protests in yemen and egypt on the tuesday night's storming of the u.s. consulate in benghazi. u.s. ambassador christopher stevens and three other staff members were killed in the attack. >> there are 47% of people who are with the president, who believe they are victims, who believe the government has a

responsibility to care for them, who believe they are entitled to health care, food, housing. in titled, that the government should give it to them. >> welcome to a taste of the run the economy. that is a message on the banner that greets you here at this tent city where we are broadcasting from, two hours west of chicago in between wisconsin and iowa, two swing states. this in canton was set up by workers who are faced with losing their livelihoods when the factory across the street from us closes their doors in november, moving to china, taking around 170 jobs with them. >> the bain capital board has made their decision. the cdo has made his decision. -- ceo has made his decision.

we believe the only person in the world who can stop these jobs from the move is mitt romney. >> in the latest sign of global warming, grms in the arctic has shrunk to its smallest area since record-keeping began. >> there are people who rely on the arctic ocean. if the ice melts, it is a scary thought. it is who we are, is where the animals migrate. my elders, the community elders rely on their vitamins, the traditional foods that the ocean supplies. >> i'm sorry, i will stop the subsidy to pbs and other things. i love big bird, i like you, too, but i'm not going to keep on spending money to borrow from china to pay for. >> labor protests against the largest private employer, walmart, is expanded to 28 stores in 12 states. organizers describe the action

as the first retail workers' strike in walmart's history. >> i work in the warehouse in illinois. the conditions are terrible. a lot of safety issues, broken equipment that was not getting repaired. they would push us to work at a rate that makes it even more unsafe. we finally just had enough. we started to organize, we started a petition, just asking for basic rights. manager refused to take it, so that was the final straw. that was it and we walked out that day. >> from denver, colorado, this is a democracy now! special broadcast, expanding the debate. >> what i am most concerned about is having a serious discussion about what we need to do to keep the country growing and restore security for hard- working americans. that is what people will be

listening for, that is the debate you desert. >> my record is out there, proud of it. if people want someone who understands how the economy works, having worked in the economy, i am the best person to post up against barack obama. >> these two parties have a stranglehold on our democracy. they are depriving people around the country not only of being able to get on the ballot, they are denying all of us of our freedom of choice. >> we have a state of emergency, i think, at the national level. to silence the only hope of an opposition voice in this election when so much is at stake, i think, would be a terrible loss for the american people. >> as president obama and mitt romney square off for the first time, we will break the sound barrier by expanding the debate to include two candidates shut out by the major two political parties, green party presidential candidate jill stein and the justice party's

presidential candidate rocky anderson. they will produce pig in the debate in real time. >> i am mad. this land is my land. we begin in texas where a stand of his underwear or construction of the keystone xl oil pipeline which would run tar sands oil from canada to u.s. refineries on the gulf coast. >> it has been our land since 1983, our home is on it. they are going to destroy the woods. also, they could destroy the springs. it is devastating but it is also not very good to have the tar sands. this is not just about my land, it is about all of our country. >> governor romney says he has a five-point plan? he has a one-point plan. that plan is to make sure folks

at the top play by a different set of rules. >> we took a concerted effort to find women who have backgrounds that could be qualified to become members of our cabinet. i went to a number of women's groups and said, can you find us women? they brought us a binder full of women. >> jill stein and vice presidential candidate cheri hot color were arrested on tuesday outside of hofstra university after attempting to join the debate. >> we are here to stand our ground, stanley r. brown for the american people who have been systematically blocked out of these debates for decades by the commission on presidential debates. we think the commission is entirely illegitimate. if democracy truly prevailed there would be no such commission. the debates would still be run by the league of women voters, the debates would be open. >> this is a series and big storm and my first message is to

all people across the eastern seaboard, the atlantic, north, you need to take this very seriously and follow the instructions of your state and local officials because they are going to be providing you with the best advice in terms of how to deal with this storm over the coming days. >> help, we need help. seriously. >> what we need most right now is like. at that time, it is pitch black. you cannot even see what is in front of you. >> we are working with sandy relief and ows. people are bringing in clothes, food, canned goods, diapers, batteries, flashlights, everything under the sun that we need. >> i have not seen the american red cross have a shelter for people are buried in their homes. they have nothing to eat or drink.

>> there is a wake-up call and listen to be learned here. there is a reality that has existed for a long time that we have been blind to. and that is climate change, extreme weather, call it what you will, and our vulnerability to it. 10 years ago, it was true, it was true five years ago. it is undeniable today. >> the truth about climate changes we are locked into a certain amount oamclimate change in the years to come but we absolutely have a small window to try to avoid catastrophic climate change. we have gotten a taste of what we are looking forward to, and it is pretty scary. >> president obama had been reelected to a second term with a resounding victory over republican challenger mitt romney. >> a return to the white house more determined and inspired ever about the work we have to do and the future that lies ahead. >> in one of the most closely

watched races nationwide consumer advocate elizabeth warren unseated scott brown in massachusetts. >> for every family that has been chipped at, squeeze, and hammered, we are going to fight for a level playing field and we are going to put people back to work. that is what we are going to do. >> advocates of marriage equality ended tuesday t with fr out of four victories as voters legalized same-sex marriage in maine, maryland, upheld same-sex marriage in washington state, and defeated a measure to ban same-sex marriage in minnesota. noam chomsky recently returned from his first visit to gaza. >> it is pretty amazing and inspiring to see people managing somehow to survive as, essentially, caged animals, subject to constant, random,

sadistic punishment, only to humiliate them, no pretext. israel and the united states keep them alive, basically. they do not want them to starve to death. but life is set up so that you cannot have a decent life. >> israel is threatening to launch a ground invasion in the gaza strip after breaking an informal cease-fire with a series of attacks. an israeli air strike assassinated the head of the hamas military wing. >> this is mostly children and civilians. i saw a couple of minutes ago more children being brought here. with severe injuries. israel is using some type of weapon that burned the bodies of the children. burn the bodies of the children and makes it difficult to identify who are those people. there is no country on earth that would tolerate misfiles

raining down on its citizens from outside its borders. so we are fully supportive of israel's right to defend itself from the soft landing on people's homes and workplaces and potentially killing civilians. >> at least 118 people have been killed and many injured and a massive fire at a garment factory in bangladesh. the workers were working overtime making clothes for major retailers such as wal-mart and sears. >> wal-mart itself discovered problems at the factory in 2011, problems that were on specified in the report that has been published, but apparently they took no action to address those problems. of course, we saw the result of that inaction on saturday. >> the talks in doha concluded after the death toll from a devastating hot food in the philippines continues to soar. >> i am making an urgent appeal,

not as a negotiator, not as a leader of my delegation, but as a filipino, i appeal to the whole world. i appeal to the leaders from all around the world, to open their eyes to the stark reality we face. i appeal to ministers, the outcome of our work is not what our political masters want. it is about what is demanded of us by 7 billion people. i appeal, please, no more delays, no more excuses. >> jonathan pershing, are you following president obama's wishes, and had the response to civil society groups who say the u.s. is a lead of stricter to any kind of negotiated deal here in doha? >> i have no comment on the first part of that. >> our government must realize this failure is a betrayal of the people in the philippines and around the world that have

faced climate impact now, today, and will continue in the days to come. but what is at stake here is not some the the real thing, the planet or environment, but what is at stake is selling that our children and grandchildren to futures. >> federal and new york state prosecutors have unveiled their $1.9 billion settlement with the banking giant hsbc for a massive money laundering scheme used by drug cartels and other illegal groups. >> you can do real time in jail and therefore doing ridiculous offenses, or taking it up two subway seats. people go to jail all the time in this country. for having a marijuana stem in your pocket. there are 50,000 marijuana- related cases in america alone every year. and here we have a bank money laundered billions of dollars and they cannot find anyone to put in jail. >> i had a chance to speak

directly to leonard peltier when he called into a news conference organized by his lawyers and pete seeger. >> what would you do if you were free? >> probably go home on house arrest. that is the only thing i could expect. i do not think obama would do what bill clinton did. he is not going to give any clemencies until his last year. it is not going to happen. george bush signed the second chance act, which is house arrest, so we are pushing for that. if i do get house arrest, at least i can get some medical treatment. they are not giving us treatment here. >> the initial shock of the latest semi-automatic weapons to

a massacre has passed the degree of gross. a funeral occurred with a daily drumbeat. it will take 28 funerals as the newtown, conn. shooter adam lanza took his own life after slaughter his mother at home, and and 20 children, and then six women at the sandy hook elementary school who tried to protect them. >> i am sure there will be a day for discussion of the usual washington policy debates, but i do not think today is that day. >> as soon as the press conference was over, i called the white house. listen, we have gone through too many of these shootings. everyone says you cannot say anything. well, we should have been talking about this going all the way back from columbine, we should of been talking about this in the last few years, with the real difference. i thought for sure our colleagues would see this for

what it is, that there are too many guns out on the streets. the one we are after, if you look and all the shootings we have had lately, are the assault weapons and certainly the larger magazine clips. this time i would not hold my voice. this time i said no, i will go out and start speaking. >> on tuesday, a woman from newtown, conn. spoke in washington on behalf of the brady campaign. his 8-year-old son was pulled into a classroom by the teacher and escaped harm at the shooting last week. >> i am an immigrant. i have been here for 22 years. i held these beliefs, america has a deep history with guns. it is part of american history. gun owners and people who handle guns, they know how to keep them

safe and be responsible. our politicians will do whatever they can to make sure our kids are safe. and, you know, every time something like columbine, virginia tech, or aurora happens, i ever my eyes and think, something must be done. but all those beliefs were shattered on friday. now i think we all need to speak up. >> democratic congressmember dennis kucinich. >> we spent trillions on more, to wage violence thousands of miles away, and we become anesthetized to the wilds of or against millions of innocent women, men, and children are

brought. it is no wonder we are grappling with domestic violence. and as and if we took a fraction of those drilling we use for war and use it to deal directly with the root causes of domestic violence, spousal abuse, child abuse, violence in school, gang violence, racial violence, violence against immigrants, violence against gays. if we did that and look at the root causes, we would not be arguing about spending money for war. we need to look at the issue of violence in america. >> that concludes our look back at 2012. if you would like a copy of today's broadcast, go to our website, democracynow.org. democracy now! is produced by an extraordinary group of people. democracy now! is looking for feedback from people who appreciate the closed captioning. email your comments to outreach@democracynow.org or mail them to democracy now! p.o. box 693, new york, ny 10013.

may this next year bring you